I had been hearing rumblings about Santorum making a strong showing in Colorado, and it turns out the rumblings were accurate. I remember thinking that Santorum could really connect with people after his speech in Iowa. Given the continuing strength of the Tea Party in Colorado, I’m not surprised that he took Colorado.

This election season has been way too much fun! Last night Santorum cleaned Romney’s clock in three states. I’m sure that Romney will now hit the accelerator on his move to the right. There will be a whole month of no primary contests to check the speed and direction, and the media will telegraph his every move.  The Newt will be moving to the right also, since he is convinced he is destined to be President.

The Komen experience with Planned Parenthood didn’t teach these guys anything. They still think that the loudest voices in the GOP are representative of voters in the general election. But the loudest voices are the fundamentalist Christians in a nation that is increasingly becoming more like Europe, where Church is not a weekly thing and does not dominate the thinking of the people. And then there are those pesky birth control and women’s health issues.

The Catholic Church is going to continue to raise a stink about birth control, and both the media and the GOP candidates are going to listen to them. Why anyone would put a lot of credence in a bunch of guys who hang out mostly with other guys and dress in medieval white, red and black robes while continuing to get caught up in scandals involving sex with altar boys is beyond my comprehension. For sure their own female parishioners are ignoring them when it comes to women’s health, as are many of their nuns.

Santorum, as the latest Anybody-But-Romney candidate, is going to get a lot more media attention, now. His war on birth control will become more widely known, and he will start to fall in the polls. None of the current crop of Republicans seems to remember that Ken Buck was defeated in Colorado because of his war on women. They have even forgotten the recent loss of a Personhood amendment in conservative Mississippi.

Homework

Atheism America Religious Right

It failed twice in Colorado, and once in Mississippi, but the Denver based group that promotes the “Personhood” amendment announced today that they are going to try to get it on Colorado’s ballot again. Maybe they believe that the third time is the charm. Having been defeated twice in Colorado, with almost ¾ of all voters voting against it both times, I’m thinking it is more like the definition of insanity—doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

There are many things wrong with the idea that life begins at conception. It makes birth control pills illegal, because they prevent a fertilized egg from planting itself in the uterine lining. It makes the morning after pill for rape victims illegal. It makes any miscarriage a crime scene.

Women burned bras in their attempts to gain equality. Forcing women to carry every pregnancy to term is certainly not equality. No man faces nine months of carrying a fetus around inside his body. If the pregnancy is the result of a rape, it is cruel and unusual punishment. It values the rights of the rapist over the rights of the victim. Personhood is reproductive slavery for women, and guaranteed fatherhood for rapists. Nice priorities.

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Personhood Is BAAAAAACK

No, this blog isn’t about any Weiner. It is about the growing war on women’s reproductive health. There is a movement to define “Personhood.” It even has its own group of activists: Personhood USA. The Personhood website claims that it is engaged in the most important civil rights struggle of our age. That would make defining Personhood more important than discrimination against minorities in education and the workplace; more important than equal pay for equal work; more important than equal rights regardless of sexual orientation. Hogwash.

But it sounds so benign—protecting the “preborn.” Their mission is to: “serve Jesus by being an Advocate for those who can not [sic] speak for themselves, the pre-born child. We serve by starting / coordinating efforts to establish legal ‘personhood’ for pre-born children through peaceful activism, legislative efforts and ballot-access petition initiatives.” Personhood USA is homegrown in Colorado—headquartered in the town where I went to junior high and high school—Arvada.

According to libertarian law professor Jonathan Turley, the real impact of the initiatives being promoted by Personhood USA would be to ban contraceptives. By defining life as beginning at the moment that a sperm cell is introduced to an egg, regardless of its implantation into the uterus, we enter a whole new level of sexual Puritanism. Only about half of all fertilized eggs actually result in a pregnancy, yet this definition of “Personhood” would make even unviable fertilized eggs persons. This goes way beyond trying to ban abortion; it would ban things like birth control pills and IUDs.

Ladies, forget about a career. If you engage in sex at all, you are going to be spending your life barefoot and pregnant because even your unviable fertilized eggs have more rights than you do. Forget about moving up the corporate ladder, you are stuck in poverty. And don’t expect any help with food for those kids. The Republican war on women includes eliminating any nutritional support for moms and kids. Maybe you can send the kids to the store to steal a loaf of bread, leading them into a life of crime. At least they’ll get three meals and a cot if they are behind bars.

Accroding to Sir Issac Newton’s third law of physics, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The reaction to Personhood USA is Ibis Reproductive Health. Their mission is : “to improve women’s reproductive autonomy, choices and health worldwide…by conducting original clinical and social science research, leveraging existing research, producing educational resources,  and promoting policies and practices that sexual and reproductive rights and health.”

Ibis Reproductive Health is predicting that the 2012 elections could depend on the reproductive health of women in America. Forget about ObamaCare, let’s give the fetus the right to vote. (Just in case you didn’t recognize it, that was sarcasm.)

Homework

Personhood USA

Jonathan Turley's Blog

Ibis Reproductive Health